Berry and apple pie with orange shortbread pastry art

No back story for this one and no science bit unusually for me but it does show you step by step how to create my signature contemporary pies with reverse lattice cut-outs. I’ve now been asked a few times for a run down on how I do one of my pies, so here is the full recipe and set of photos.

If you’ve got any queries about how to do this, just add it to the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer. I’d love to see any that you make yourselves – please show it here or tag me in Instagram or Twitter xxx

Notes

I have not used egg in the pastry as I do not want it to puff up during baking. It needs to bake as flat as possible and, as eggs are natural leaveners, not including any egg helps this. Also the pie is not blind baked – keeping a baking tray in the hot oven before you put the pie in helps to avoid that dreaded soggy bottom.

Equipment

20cm pie tin

Rolling pin

Baking paper

Palette knife

Sharp knife

Baking tray wide enough to sit your pie tin on)

Pastry brush

Your choice of at least one small cutter

Bowls

Medium saucepan and wooden spoon

Rolling pin

Ingredients – pastry

Plain flour – 250g

Unsalted butter, slightly softened – 125g

Salt – a pinch

Caster sugar – 60g

Orange zest – zest of one large fresh orange

A little milk – about 30ml to bring the pastry together and for brushing later

Ingredients – filling

Mixed fruit – 500g (can be fresh or frozen)

Eating apple – 1 whole apple, cored, peeled and diced (if you are using tiny apples, like a pippin, then you’ll need one and a half apples)

Granulated sugar – this is to taste, but you will need at least 80g and probably more depending on how tart your berries are. Plus you’ll need a little extra for sprinkling

Ground almonds – 60g

Method – fruit filling

This will vary in the length of time taken, depending on whether you are using fresh berries (only about a 5 minute pre-cook) or frozen (about 15 minutes)

Place your berries, the diced apple and the granulated sugar in your saucepan and put over a medium heat (leave the ground almonds for later)

You will need to continually stir and gently prod the berries to ensure they break up a little

Whatever you do, do NOT add any additional water to the the saucepan – it may look at first as if they are too dry and will burn, but will a bit of stirring plenty of juice will come out. If you had added some water, the whole mix will turn out too wet for the pie

Take the saucepan off the heat when the berries have oozed a little juice, some of them have broken up a bit and the apple has softened slightly

Leave to cool while you make the pastry

Method – pastry

No need to make this pastry in stages – put all the ingredients in a bowl together (excluding the milk) and rub together until you get it to the fine breadcrumbs stage

Drip in a bit of milk at a time (you only want ‘just enough’) until you can massage the pastry and bring it together into a ball. It’s ready when it picks up all the pastry bits from the side of the bowl – and remember not to overwork it

If you’re in a warm or hot room, put the pastry in the fridge for five minutes so it’s easier to work with. If you’re in a cool room you can go straight to the next step. As it’s a simple shortcrust pastry it needs less consideration and resting than one with egg in it

Have your pie tin ready. I used an enamel tin for this and have found I do not need to grease or flour it; it work fine as it is. You will know if your choice of tin is prone to sticking

Break off about a third of the pastry and leave to one side

Using two pieces of baking paper: one on the work surface and one on top of the pastry roll our the pastry as thinly as you dare. I do it to about 2-3mm. You will probably need to keep taking off the top sheet of baking paper and repositioning it so it doesn’t curl

Make sure it spreads wider than the full diameter of your tin

Take off the top sheet and place your tin upside down on the pastry

Invert your pastry and tin together and peel off the baking paper gently

Lift and ‘feed’ the pastry into the corners of the tin and trim off the excess with a sharp knife

Put this excess together with the pastry you left to one side earlier

Press down with your thumb all the way round the edge of the pie to ensure the pastry grips to the tin and doesn’t shrink during baking

Leave the pie tin to one side

Roll out the remaining pastry using the same method as above (with the baking paper) and to the same thickness

Press out shapes with your chosen cutter and carefully remove them. You want to use both the lattice you are creating AND the shapes you have cut out

Make sure that the gaps between the cut-outs aren’t too thin or they will break when you place the lattice on. Neither should they be too thick or you’ll have too much pastry. between 6-12mm is fine

Make sure you cut out enough shapes so that the lattice it has created fits over the entire diameter of the pie

What you have cut out will invert on the pie as you are going to flip the lattice pastry over

Method – filling and assembly

Put your oven on to 190C fan / 210C conventional and put the baking tray in

Spread out the ground almonds on the bottom of the pie

Now is the time to pour your cooled filling into the pastry case and spread evenly

Dampen the edge of the pastry case with a little milk using the brush

Lift the pastry lattice up with the baking paper still attached – flip this over and place it pastry-side down on the filled pie

Carefully remove the baking paper and press down the edges so that the lattice adheres to the pastry case

Re-brush the edges of the pastry where it is dry (the new lattice bits)

Take your cut-out shapes and arrange them around the edge of the pie, pressing them down lightly (but not so hard you leave finger marks)

Sprinkle some extra granulated sugar over the pastry

Pop in the oven and bake for 25 – 30 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden

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About this blog

All recipes in this blog are my own (a tiny number are based on other recipes and are clearly attributed in this instance). All photographs and artworks are my own.

If you want to use an excerpt or recipe you may do so with appropriate credit and links to my site. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of my recipes and images is prohibited/copyright without prior permission.